OSBA will award $5,000 scholarship checks to six boards

Thursday, January 5, 2017

OSBA will award $5,000 checks for local student scholarships in coming weeks to the boards of five school districts and one education service district (ESD).

The boards qualified for the funds under a new OSBA initiative known as the Promise Scholarship Program. Each board completed a five-step process including a board project, superintendent and board self-evaluations, participation in “The Promise of Oregon” campaign (www.promiseoregon.org), and individual board member development (or a second board project).

Qualifying boards and the planned dates for checks to be awarded are:

Athena-Weston – Jan. 9

Baker – Feb. 16

Jefferson 14J – Feb. 8

Multnomah ESD – Jan. 17

North Santiam – Jan. 19

Nyssa – to be determined

Steve Kelley, OSBA’s director of board development, said participating boards had made a long-term investment in students’ success.

“This program helps students both by providing scholarship funds and investing in board member training,” Kelley said. “Stronger boards are better prepared to face today’s education challenges.”

Stephen Beaudoin, chairman of the Multnomah ESD, said the program had been timely and beneficial.

“The work we did to align the board around key goals and metrics for the year – the first time in several years of transition and turnover in which this has happened – was especially timely given the (hiring) of our new superintendent,” he said.

The selected boards are responsible for awarding student scholarships to one or more students by a method of their choosing.

The Promise campaign, which debuted in November 2014, aims to create public support for K-14 education, to help meet the state’s 40-40-20 goals and lift student achievement and graduation rates. OSBA is a member services agency for more than 200 locally elected boards serving school districts, ESDs and community colleges. It also provides services to charter schools and their boards.